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Friday, April 18, 2014

Fabric Eating Bugg

Our Little Bugg

This week marked the one year anniversary of us finding our loving chihuahua, Bugg. Mr. Toad had texted me that there was a dog laying in the gutter in front of our house. He was on the way to a meeting and had me go out and check on it.

We seem to be the house where lost dogs go until their owner shows up. We have a neighborhood with almost every house having at least one dog. People also walk their dogs in our neighborhood. We have returned many dogs in the neighborhood and have extra crates/kennels to keep them until their owners get home.

Well, when I went out, this skinny, nervous chihuahua would stay about arms length. If I approached, he moved away. If I backed away, he came closer. It wasn't until our miniature dachshund, Ollie, came out to see why I was giving attention to another dog.

Youngest Son's Quilt that I made for his 4th birthday.
Bugg ATE the binding!

Well, this poor lost chihuahua wanted to be close to our Ollie. I had Youngest Son grab a leash, and we started walking the neighborhood looking for his home. We asked kids and went to homes that we knew had chihuahuas or small white dogs. We asked people walking their dogs. I felt weird with a dog walking with us and not on a leash.

After a couple hours of this, and calling the numbers on lost pet posters, it was getting dark. We decided we could keep him overnight in a crate. He came right in the house and didn't mind being in the crate. He drank some water, ate some food and fell asleep. Ollie and Padme, our cocker spaniel, slept next to the crate. This is odd because Ollie is very spoiled and sleeps with us.

This is the second down comforter Bugg has eaten.
It will be turned into a couple of pet beds.

The next morning, this poor lost dog acted like this was his home. He was buddies with our other dogs and followed us everywhere. I took him to our vet to have him scanned for a chip. He almost bite the tech who scanned him. She warned that he probably wouldn't make it at the shelter. I then posted ads and arranged to foster him with our shelter.

Needless to say, we were unable to find his owner and we ended up keeping him.

Bugg's latest victim--
Youngest Son'sjammies.

Now as much as we love this little dog, he does have bad habits. He chews fabric. Actually, he eats fabric. He has eaten holes in two down comforters, the bindings on two quilts that I have made, countless clothes and a week ago, Youngest Son's newest jammies.

The jammies I found out about as he was getting ready to go to a church pajama party. The latest down comforter, I found when our geriatric cat was covered in feathers, along with my whole bedroom. He ate through four channels. I tried to fix it, but have decided to turn it into a couple of pet beds.

I guess, we will continue working with this little guy. He has managed to creep into our hearts and family.

Maybe, I should give Bugg my wadders so that I don't feel so bad when I won't wear them?

We have a friend who had a teacup. He got through a crack in the fence before she could get him fixed. We never thought we would have a chihuahua! We thought they were too prissy. Boy were we wrong! It turned out that Bugg is a real dog. He has wormed himself into our hearts. He's lucky he's so sweet with as much damage as he has done.

Hmmm...is he anxious?? Could that be why he is chewing up fabric? Does it happen when you are not home? Dogs get bored easily, and time goes by extremely slow for them when they do not have human company. When I had a dog, she would chew all our shoes when we were away. It worked to give her a Kong with a tasty treat inside, and leave the radio on when we left the house. Good luck! Bugg is a cutie!

Yes, Vanessa, Bugg is an anxious dog. We have been working with him and he is getting better. I am home most of the time and generally only leave for a few hours at a time. The comforter was a day we were gone more than ten hours, and Mr. Toad and Middle Son were gone for a few days. I have caught him chewing in his sleep sometimes, like he is nursing. Luckily he didn't get the quilt underneath the comforter. That us a queen size storm at sea that I made a few years ago. That would have broken my heart. I usually leave the tv on and let it timeout when I leave that does seem to help.